


Prison things

by AtLAstuff



Series: That soulmate AU [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Getting Together, I love my girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 21:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17905856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLAstuff/pseuds/AtLAstuff
Summary: How Mai and Ty Lee work things out in prison.Or: post the Boiling Rock, set in my soulmate universe.Could be read as a standalone.





	Prison things

**Author's Note:**

> For those that haven’t read my Zukka soulmate AU: in the story, Mai and Zuko have a fake relationship in order to protect themselves, but Mai still stands up for Zuko when they flee the Boiling Rock. 
> 
> That’s all the background you need ^^

The prisoner clothes were terrible, Mai decided. For her at least, Ty Lee looked amazing in it, because of course she did. She looked amazing in everything. She herself would much rather get her darker clothes back straight away. 

 

This whole prison thing was so  _ boring.  _ There was literally nothing to do! And she definitely didn’t get to keep her blades to practice. 

 

Sitting in the shade in the yard, far away from the other prisoners, Mai thought about all that had happen the past day. The fact that Ty Lee had taken her side, had even stood up against Azula to protect her still amazed her. It’s not like she thought there was anything more behind it than Ty Lee just choosing the right thing to do, but she was still glad for it. Zuko had been stupid, running of like that, but also brave, and maybe it was her time to be brave too. That’s what she thought at least. 

 

_ “You must really love Zuko,” _ Ty Lee had said on their way to their shared cell that first day, and she had just kind of nodded because what else could she do?  _ “No not really, he’s just a dumbass but he’s still my friend so,” _ would raise way too many questions. But now she just worked herself into more trouble, keeping up the lie. 

 

“Mai!” A cheerful voice suddenly called, and Ty Lee came bolting to her with the biggest smile on her face, as if she didn’t even remotely care they were locked up in a prison, and a very boring one at that. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Mai could feel her warm hands grasping her wrist and pulling her up. “Come! I met some new friends!” 

 

Ty Lee’s positivity was admirable, really, and it was also very cute, even if Mai really didn’t get how one person could possibly be this optimistic. 

 

“These are the Kyoshi warriors!” She said, the big smile still on her face. 

 

“Yea, we’ve met,” Mai said, looking away. It hadn’t exactly been the best circumstances in which they had met. The fact that these girls even still wanted to speak with them was a miracle. Not that Mai  _ cared _ or something. 

 

“Come on, we’re friends now!” 

 

~~

 

So yea, Ty Lee was very excited, even when locked up, and she was also very good at making friends. How could anyone possibly not be her friend?  _ How could anyone not flat out fall in love with her _ ? Mai innerly groaned, this was getting really bad and she knew it. Being locked up in a prison with someone you like is basically asking for problems. 

 

“They’re nice, aren’t they?”

 

“I guess,” there was nothing wrong with the Kyoshi Warriors, it was just awkward. 

 

The other went to sit on Mai’s bed, rather than her own. “You don’t like them?” 

 

“I don’t know,” she admitted. 

 

“Well, I guess it makes sense, you hate everyone,” Ty Lee somehow laughed with this, like it was some funny joke. “Except for Zuko maybe.”

 

“I don’t hate you,” her eyes averted, suddenly very interested in the dent in the floor.  _ How did that happen? _ The cell was gray and bare, and had very little sunlight, which obviously wasn’t a problem to her, but it was also cold, which kind of was a problem. 

 

“You don’t?” Ty Lee’s eyes grew, and she smiled even brighter. 

 

“You think I hate you?” 

 

Well, at least she hadn’t been too obvious with her  _ crush _ then. 

 

“I don’t know,” Ty Lee moved on the back, leaning against the wall and pulling her knees up. They were close, only a tiny bit of space on the bed separating them. “I didn’t take it personally, it’s just how you are, I guess.” 

 

How does one even reply to that? 

 

“Well, I don’t,” Mai sighed. If only she knew. 

 

Suddenly, arms were wrapped around her, and she could feel Ty Lee’s heartbeat against her chest. “That makes me so happy,” she said, sounding extremely sincere. 

 

What else could she do than wrap her arms around the other too?

 

~~

 

“How did you figure out you’re in love with Zuko?” Ty Lee suddenly asked one night, both lying on their own bed on opposite walls, a big empty space between them. 

 

“I’m sorry, what?” 

 

Ty Lee repeated herself and Mai genuinely didn’t know what to answer. 

 

“You know, he’s like… nice?” Lying wasn’t exactly her forte, and she hated lying to Ty Lee especially. “And handsome?” Zuko was what other people would call handsome, right? “Similar personality like me,” she added for good measure, as if that was something she had a thing for. 

 

The room was only dimly lit, luckily. “You fell in love because he’s nice and handsome and because he has a similar personality?” 

 

“I-,”  _ tell her _ . “Ty Lee, Zuko and I aren’t in love,” she couldn’t do it anymore. If Zuko could be all brave and accept who he is, so could she. Maybe not confess her love straight away, but at least be honest about this one thing. “It was just a fake relationship,” she sighed. 

 

The silence was downright painful. 

 

“You lied to me,” Ty Lee finally said, sounding rather hurt. Mai had never meant to hurt her. 

 

“I had to, for Zuko’s sake,”  _ and for mine.  _

 

For a second she thought the other would stand up out of frustration, but it’s not like they had a lot of places to go. “You did this only to help Zuko? But I don’t understand…”

 

“You know how dangerous it is? For men who like other men?”  _ And women who like other women?  _ “Especially if they’re the crown prince.” They both knew about the tattoo and who Zuko ‘belonged’ to. 

 

“So you were just going to stay with him forever and give up your own happiness for him? To protect him? But why?” Ty Lee sounded so confused, and rightfully so. “I know you’re friends but…”

 

Mai sighed.  _ Tell her. At least tell her you like girls _ , her brain told her. What’s the worst that could happen? Okay, a lot of bad things could happen, but he still somewhat had faith in Ty Lee, she had stood up to Azula after all. She was pretty open minded, right? “I didn’t do it for him, I did it for myself too.”

 

“You mean…?”

 

“I like girls,” she confirmed. There it was. 

 

The other didn’t reply and Mai really thought she had fucked it all up. Oh well. That’s life. It’s sad, really but she couldn’t force Ty Lee to accept her, she guessed. It was still painful though, more painful than she’d like to admit. 

 

In the end, she just said, “okay.”

 

“Okay?” 

 

She could learn to live with anger, or with an excited answer, but an okay was just so… vague. What do you even make out of that? 

 

“It doesn’t matter, right?” Ty Lee then said. 

 

“Wait, really?” A small smile she couldn’t stop spread on her lips.  _ Ty Lee isn’t angry or upset about it.  _

  
  


“If the universe gave Zuko a man as his soulmate,” she started, “and some women have other women as soulmates right? Then I don’t see how it could ever form a problem. It’s really stupid the more you think about it.”

 

This conversation really was going a lot better than Mai could’ve ever hoped for it to happen, and she really couldn’t stop the growing smile on her face.   

 

The silence wasn’t anywhere near awkward anymore.

 

_ What would Sokka and Zuko be doing now?  _ She hoped her standing up to Azula at least hadn’t been for nothing in that regards. She hated to admit it, but she also somewhat wanted the Avatar to win this whole war. Not really because of all it had caused, frankly, she didn’t really care that much, but because Zuko did deserve that title of Fire Lord. Maybe he could fix some things on how people look at other’s relationships. What she wasn’t gonna do however, was wait until Zuko came to save her from this prison. She could do that perfectly fine herself, and she would too. 

 

“I think I like someone,” Ty Lee said after a while, and Mai’s slight smile was gone right away. 

 

Glad of the fact that she was so good at hiding her emotions, she asked, “So, does he like you?” Obviously he does. Seriously, who doesn’t like Ty Lee? Only a dumbass wouldn’t. 

 

“I don’t know…” she trailed off. 

 

Mai lightly snorted. “I’m sure he does, boys love you, don’t they?”

 

For a second, she swore she heard Ty Lee say something along the lines of “yea, that’s the problem”, but it was too quiet for her to be sure, and Ty Lee just stayed quiet afterwards.  

  
  


“Goodnight Mai,” she finally said, sounding cheery again. Mai liked hearing her cheery like this.  

 

~~

 

Mai had to admit, some of these Kyoshi Warriors were pretty alright. She wasn’t all that big on people in general, but Ty Lee seemed happy, and one of the warriors in particular caught her eye.  _ Yuna _ . Yuna was pretty, just like the others,  _ so unfair _ , but she was a lot like her too. Most of the Warriors were pretty extroverted, bubbly people, but not Yuna. Not as much as the other’s at least, but still more than Mai. 

 

“I love what I do but man, green really isn’t my colour,” she laughed. 

 

“I’m more of a dark red and black clothes person myself,” Mai agreed. “When we posed as Kyoshi Warriors, the dresses were atrocious! Ty Lee looked good in them but still.”

 

They sat on the edge of the table, while Ty Lee sat on the other side. They were with quite the group now, and Mai tried her very best to not sneak glances at her best friend, who was laughing with some other girls. 

 

“She’s rather cheerful,” Yuna noted. “You two not very alike, are you?”

 

“We aren’t  _ that _ different,”  _ okay maybe we are.  _ “Oh well, we can’t all be that cheerful.”  _ Opposites attract, right? _

 

Ty Lee was just so lively in comparison to actual life which was so bleak and boring. 

 

“You’re a good warrior,” Yuna finally said. “I saw you with them blades, what are they called again?”

 

“shuriken.”

 

“That’s the one!” She smiled. “It was pretty impressive! Not a very nice thing when you’re trying to battle against you, but still impressive.” 

 

Mai was good with her blades, she knew that herself too. Teaching herself how to use them had been rather easy, with all the time she had on her hands. She was a quick learner anyways, and her homework was finished early almost every day. “Thanks, I taught it myself.”

 

Yuna’s eyes grew. “You did? That’s amazing!”

 

“That’s what you get from throwing blades at the wall out of boredom.”

 

Yuna giggled, and then leaned in closer, quietly whispering, “and you’re pretty cute too, to be honest,” and then winked.  _ Winked! _

 

_ Is she flirting with me? _ To say Mai was taken aback was quite the understatement. “Thanks?” 

 

If you asked Mai, she wouldn’t exactly call herself ‘ _ cute _ ’ either. 

 

“Want to go somewhere more private?”

 

Well, Yuna clearly wasn’t here to play around. Mai looked briefly to her left, Ty Lee was still smiling and laughing with the others. What else could she do? This whole prison thing was so boring and at least Yuna could somewhat help with that, right? She nodded. 

 

~~

 

“Come here,” Yuna grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind a wall. “No one ever comes here.”

 

“You found a spot like this in a prison?” She wouldn’t say it out loud, but she was rather impressed. “A place no one ever comes?” 

 

“This place is boring, what else am I gonna do?”

 

“You’re not wrong,” Mai sighed. Yuna was staring at her, and she knew it. She also knew what Yuna wanted by bringing her here for a reason. On one hand, it would definitely take her mind off of things, and this place was boring as fuck, they had to pass time somehow. 

 

On the other hand, Ty Lee. “we’re not going to kiss,” Mai finally said, knowing she’d only feel annoyed at herself afterwards.  _ Not like Ty Lee would care.  _

 

Yuna looked a bit taken aback. “Then why did you come here?”

 

“I don’t know, you said it yourself, this place is boring,” but the truth is, she didn’t know why she had come here. It wasn’t really a thought-through decision but it’s really not that big of a deal either way. 

 

“You like Ty Lee, right?” Yuna then asked. “That’s fair, she’s nice.”

 

“Is it that obvious?” Mai really thought she had been doing a good job at hiding it. Keeping back her emotions was one of skills after all. 

 

“Not really, I just have an eye for those types of things.”

 

“Let’s hope Ty Lee doesn’t,” she said without thinking. In reality, she knew the other wasn’t aware of her feelings. She would’ve said something before otherwise, and wouldn’t have been so surprised when Mai told her she likes girls, but still. 

 

“Maybe this’ll make her jealous,” Yuna suddenly smirked. “And maybe then you’ll work things out?”

 

Mai couldn’t help but snort a bit. “Jealous? Of this? I don’t think so. Why would she?” And how would that ever make things better? From her experience, jealousy would only make things worse. 

 

“Maybe she likes you more than you think she does.”

 

“Yea right,” she leaned back against the cold wall, bringing her knees up a bit. “Wait, if you knew, why did  _ you  _ bring me here?”

 

“A girl can dream, right?” She winked. “Also, again, this place is boring as fuck.”

 

~~

 

“You seemed to have had fun with  _ Yuna _ earlier today,” Ty Lee said. Mai swore her voice sounded a bit less cheerful than other times, but it must be her brain just playing tricks on her. 

 

“I did,” she said. 

 

They were back at the cell, but it wasn’t that late yet. Still, they both laid on their beds on the opposite walls on their sides, looking at each other, not knowing what else to do.  _ This place really is boring as fuck.  _ They had to get out of here as soon as possible. 

 

“You two disappeared for a good portion of the afternoon,” Ty Lee went on. She could hear the other turning around on the mattress to face Mai, so she turned towards the other too. 

 

“We did,” said Mai. They hadn’t been doing anything really, just sat there and talked about fighting, how Mai utilized her blades and how Yuna utilized her fan. 

 

“Did you two like,” pause. “Kiss or something?”

 

_ No we didn’t.  _ “Does it matter?” 

 

“I suppose not”, Ty Lee said. She definitely didn’t sound as cheerful as other times, which Mai found sad.  _ Why isn’t she happy? _

 

Mai might not be a very emotional person, but that doesn’t mean she wants people to be sad. Especially not Ty Lee. 

 

“Was it good?” She then finally asked.  _ Seriously, why does she care? _

 

“We didn’t kiss, Ty Lee,” she sighed. 

 

“You didn’t?” Her eyes grew, as if that was the greatest surprise of her life. 

 

“We didn’t,” Mai confirmed. “Do I look like someone that just goes around kissing random people?”

 

“Well no, but, Yuna is so nice and pretty,” she said.  “She seems like a cool person.”

 

_ Wait, does Ty Lee have a crush on Yuna? _ Well, that would be a plot twist considering Mai hadn’t really seen the two speak before, but why else would she ask and sound so depressed?

 

“Are you into girls?” It’s not a good question to ask people, Mai knew that as well. If Ty Lee wanted to tell her, she would. But she had to know. A moment of curiosity got the best of her for once. 

 

There was a long uncomfortable pause, and Mai seriously regretted asking in the first place, but she did her best not to show it. 

 

“I guess I am” Ty Lee then finally said. For a real moment, Mai felt herself getting happy about it, until she realized something.  _ So she is into Yuna.  _

 

“Yuna is into girls too,” Mai replied. “Do with that information what you want.” 

 

She wasn’t a petty person, Ty Lee has her own life she couldn’t control. If that’s what Ty Lee wanted then, well, it definitely stung, but what can you do about it. Yuna seemed nice enough at least, not one that would take advantage of the situation. 

 

Still, it had hurt. 

 

“I don’t,” another pause. “Really need that information.”

 

_ She doesn’t? Then who? _

 

Ty Lee sounded nervous and hesitant for some reason, even though she was never nervous. It was rude to ask, but still. 

 

“Then who is it?” She asked anyway. 

 

Ty Lee’s eyes grew again, before she groaned, flipped on her back and buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe how dense you are!”

 

What is it her fault Ty Lee was being all vague? She hadn’t even known about the into-women thing until a few minutes ago!

 

Oh.  

 

_ Oh.  _

 

“I think you’ll have to do quite a bit to make it up to Azula for her to trust you again, no offence,” Mai then said.  _ Ty Lee and Azula.  _ Yea that made sense, sadly enough. “I think she’s quite upset with us, but especially you.”

 

The other sat up and looked at her in disbelieve. “Are you being serious?” 

 

Mai sat up straight on her bed too. 

 

“Well yea, you did block her bending and everything, I don’t think-“

 

“You think I like Azula?” Seriously, then who? Mai didn’t like this whole guessing game. It was painful enough as it was. Seriously, why is not hating people so hard?

 

“Made sense to me,” she shrugged. 

 

“Urg! It’s-,” Ty Lee stood up in annoyance, only to walk around a couple of steps before sitting down in frustration again. “It’s you! I can’t believe you didn’t notice!”

 

_ Me?? _

 

“I’m sorry, what?”  _ When did that happen _ . “I swear, if this is a joke it’s even less funny than the average joke which is not funny at all.”

 

“I’m not joking!” Ty Lee looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry if this made things awkward I-“

 

_ Ty Lee. Likes me. And I like Ty Lee. Wow.  _

 

Mai couldn’t help but smile. “You should’ve told me that way sooner, you know how hard pining over you is when I had a whole Zuko constantly complaining about his problems? Seriously, I  _ platonically  _ like the guy but-“

 

“Wait you do?” Ty Lee looked up again, clearly in shock. In all fairness, Mai did make a whole point of hiding her real feelings for people. It was kind lf the whole point that she wouldn’t notice. 

 

“I do you dumbass!” She laughed now. “That whole arrangement with Zuko was because you wouldn’t notice my pining!” 

 

_ I can’t believe this.  _

 

Mai didn’t stop just yet. “If anything, I should be the surprised one here! I mean, I definitely am but you constantly have guys around you and seem to be really into it!” 

 

Ty Lee smiled brightly, lighting Mai’s mood immediately _.  _ “Well I  _ did  _ like the attention, and it took my mind off of you and Zuko being all lovey-dovey!”

 

“We’re not!” Mai defended herself. It wasn’t  _ that  _ bad, was it? They had to put up a scene to make it believable. 

 

“Whatever, we’ll talk about this later,” Ty Lee said, while standing up. “Can I like-... kiss you?” She was still smiling, because of course she was. Her cheerful voice was back too. 

 

“Please,” Mai whispered, looking at the other getting closer and then finally sitting on her bed.  _ I’m going to kiss Ty Lee.  _

 

They looked at each other for what seemed hours, and Ty Lee’s lips looked so soft and the smile on her face was beautiful like always. Finally, they both leaned in. 

 

_ I was right, her lips are soft.  _


End file.
